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LED Lighting As An Investment

What if I told you that there was an investment out there that returns 35% per year on average over the course of 10 years with close to zero risk. You would probably laugh at me, which is understandable, but this investment exists. LED technology has seen major advancements over the past few years including smart control capabilities, increase efficiencies and longer lifetimes. These new improvements have made LED’s a highly profitable investment for any facility or business. The energy efficiency industry can be daunting at times with hundreds of acronyms and abbreviations that will make your head spin. We ask you to take a step back and think of upgrading your lighting as an investment instead of a project. For example, check out the impressive results Ballston Spa National Bank achieved here! Over the first 10 years after upgrading to LED, BSNB will see an IRR of 40% which will save them $162,079 over the lifecycle of their investment in LED lighting. Now let’s take this a step further… What if I told you that you have a partner who will cover part of the investment cost with you but wants you to have all the returns. Now you probably really think I’m crazy but there is someone who will do this, your local utility company. Utility companies offer massive incentive funds to help you make installing an LED lighting system in your facility easier. For example, Integra LED worked with BSNB’s local utility company to get them $15,422 in incentives reducing the project cost over 28% To wrap things up, LED lighting is a phenomenal investment that anybody can take advantage of right now! Integra LED offers turnkey LED lighting systems including installation, incentive paperwork, lighting design and more.

3 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Lighting

Are you unsure if an LED lighting project is for you? There are many signs that you can look for which are clear signals that your facility is ready for a lighting upgrade. Most buildings today still use outdated lighting options that require high amounts of energy to run while producing poor quality light. In this week’s blog, we will discuss the top 3 signs that it’s time to upgrade your lighting from an outdated option like fluorescent lighting to LED lighting. Excessive Energy Consumption The most common sign that you need to upgrade your lighting system is expensive energy cost and maintenance. For example, fluorescent lamps are up to 70% less efficient than LED lights. This means that depending on the lamp installed, you could be using up to 70% more energy than you need to light your facility. Furthermore, fluorescent lamps are associated with high maintenance costs because they have short lifetimes relative to LED lighting. During the lifetime of one LED lamp, you would have to replace your fluorescent lamps up to 5 times! The cost of purchasing new lamps and completing the work can quickly add up creating expenses that can be easily avoided by upgrading your lighting. Degrading Fixtures and Lamps Let’s face it, fluorescent fixtures are ugly. We have all seen those light fixtures that have dirty lenses with a few dead flies resting inside. Surprisingly, this sight is still very common in facilities which can create a massive eyesore. Under those lenses are fluorescent lamps, these lamps degrade quickly and burn out inconsistently. As you can see in the graph on the right, fluorescent lamps instantly start degrading. After only 20,000 hours, fluorescent lamps will only be producing 70% of the advertised lumen output compared to LEDs which will be producing 95% of their advertised lumen output. Due to this, we commonly see fixtures with lamps that vary in light output because they are all at different points in their life cycle. This creates inconsistent and dim lighting in your facility that can make the space look dirty and dark. At Integra LED, we replace fluorescent lamps with efficient LED lights. As you can see on the right, they offer smooth consistent lighting through a crisp and sealed white lens. LEDs make any space instantly look cleaner while offering a more consistent light source that does not quickly degrade like fluorescent lights. Poor Lighting Quality As we briefly mentioned before, fluorescent tubes degrade extremely quickly creating inconsistent and dim lighting in a facility. A great way to recognize if your lamps have degraded is by assessing the light output of the lamps. Typically, a degraded fluorescent lamp will start to become increasingly dim during its lifetime until it either burns out or produces such little light that it needs to be replaced. Many facilities leave these degraded lamps until their last limb causing many areas to be poorly lit with inconsistent light. Have you seen those dirty troffer lenses in your facility? Or how about that absorbently high electrical bill you get every month? These signs or issues are easily solved by upgrading your facility’s lighting to LED. Integra LED offers turnkey lighting upgrades including securing incentive funds and selecting the product to ensure you get the best return on your investment and see the most savings possible with quality products!

5 Things You Should Know Before Upgrading to LED

We Make It Easy Upgrading to LED on your own can be time-consuming and difficult. In order to ensure you maximize the benefits of upgrading to LED it requires knowledge of the ever-changing LED lighting industry. On top of this, if you use an internal team during work hours, it may interfere with employee’s day to day task. Integra LED is a turnkey LED lighting consultant that completes every step of the process for you. From researching and ordering product to navigating incentive paperwork, we have you covered. Furthermore, our installation team works around your business hours to ensure there is no interference with your employees! Incentives Many people who upgrade to LED on their own are not aware of the incentive opportunities their local utility company offers or don’t have the time to navigate the paperwork. Utility companies offer different programs depending on your facility that can greatly reduce the cost of your LED lighting upgrade. Integra LED maintains business relationships with many utility companies. The catch is that the paperwork required can be time-consuming and tedious to complete. Our team at Integra LED maximizes incentives available for each customer and manages the process to get you the best return on your investment. They Last a Looooong Time Maintaining outdated light sources such as fluorescents can be a costly and laborious process for any facility manager. Fluorescents have an average lifetime of 15,000 hours and instantly begin to deteriorate once they have been installed. Therefore, the bulb may last for 15,000 hours but will be extremely dim and ineffective by the time you have reached that point. LEDs life rating is L70, this value measures the time when an LED will reach 70% of its original lumens (light output). The reason why this is important is that LEDs rarely get below 70% of its original light output where fluorescents commonly diminish much more. It’s not uncommon to see LEDs with L70 rated lives of 50,000 hours up to 200,000 hours or greater! Just to put this in perspective, the average fluorescent bulb will last between 4-6 years versus an LED which will last over well 20 years. Not All LEDs Are Created Equal As LED technology has become more available, we have seen a rise in poor quality products that have been flooding the market. In response to this, several organizations have been started that verify the quality of lighting products. The two largest and most trusted organizations are DLC and Energy Star which verify product quality and provide educational resources to consumers. Energy Star is a government run organization that focuses on the entire energy efficiency industry compared to the DLC or Design Light Consortium which focuses specifically on lighting. Integra LED only installs products that are a minimum DLC or Energy Star listed to ensure our customers get the best quality we can offer. We also only work with manufacturers that stand behind their product with both warranty and service offerings. They Offer More Than Savings The first thing that comes to mind with LEDs is energy efficiency and savings. Our customers typically see a 70% reduction in the cost of their lighting. The savings alone are a huge benefit, but LEDs offer much more than that. One major benefit LEDs offer is increased productivity due to more comfortable working conditions. Fluorescent lights produce large amounts of heat and produce intensity spikes at certain wavelengths. LEDs better resemble natural light and produce little to no heat making a space more comfortable. For example, a garment factory switching from fluorescent to LED lighting realized a significant productivity improvement which led to a 3.9% gain in profits for the business.

How Do LED Lights Reduce Maintenance Cost

Constantly switching out lights can be a pain but did you know the cost it creates for your business? LED lights most promoted benefit is lower electrical cost due to increased energy efficiency compared to outdated light sources. A commonly overlooked benefit of LED lights is the reduced cost of maintenance. Below, we will discuss the different ways LED lights can help you slash your maintenance cost and end the pain of switching out lights. Product Cost Although LED lights may cost more upfront, they last significantly longer. In contrast, fluorescent bulbs may be cheaper upfront but have a much shorter lifetime. Therefore, a lighting system with fluorescent bulbs will require you to constantly purchase new bulbs due to them burning out. Considering an LED light commonly lasts 8x to 10x longer than fluorescent bulbs, that means you would need to replace your fluorescent bulbs up to 10 times while you will never have to touch your LED lights! Each time you replace that fluorescent bulb, you are accruing unnecessary costs that can affect your company’s bottom line. Labor Cost Every time a bulb or fixture goes out, a facilities manager or electrician must take the time and resources to replace the light. This either waste time for your company’s facilities manager or cost you money to hire an electrician to replace the light. Furthermore, many large facilities require a lift to access their lights such as high bays in manufacturing locations. Each time these lights are switched, it creates safety concerns for your employees who must use a lift. On the other hand, lift fees from electricians can easily add up when you constantly have outdated bulbs that need replacing. Disruption Cost In order to replace a bulb or fixture, you have the potential to interrupt the workflow of your employees. For example, you need to use a lift to replace a high bay in your manufacturing facility. This lift may require employees below to stop work while the fixture is being replaced above them. An interruption like this can interfere with employees, decrease productivity and lose your company money! Overall, LED lights can greatly reduce maintenance by decreasing product costs, reducing labor and preventing disruption of your employees.

5 Reasons to Avoid Fluorescent Lighting

Since 1938, Fluorescent lamps have been produced and sold to the public. These lights work by ionizing mercury vapor in a tube that emits photons that produce visible light. A large majority of facilities still use these dated lamps which creates several disadvantages for their businesses. As newer and more efficient lighting options have emerged, we have found many reasons to avoid using these lamps. Continue reading below to learn about these reasons and how fluorescent lighting could be negatively impacting your business. Inefficiency Tired of receiving expensive utility bills in the mail every month? What if I told you that you could reduce your lighting cost by 70% which will drastically reduce your utility bill. That’s right, fluorescent lamps use up to 70% more energy than modern LED lights. They use a significantly higher amount of energy (Watts) to produce light making them extremely inefficient. By replacing these lights with LEDs, you will effectively reduce your energy consumption which in return, will lower your monthly utility bill. High Maintenance Cost Fluorescent lamps last around 10,000 hours on average. An office space that is has lights on 10 hours per day, 5 days per week would have annual run hours of 2,600. This means that every 3.5 years, the office would have to replace their lamps. Replacing lamps is costly and takes time away from your facilities team that could be focusing on more important tasks. On the flip side, LED lamps last around 50,000 hours on average. If they were installed in the same office, they would only have to be replaced every 17.6 years. Therefore, during the lifespan of one LED tube the office space would be purchasing and replacing their lights 4 times! As you can see, the cost of maintaining fluorescent lighting quickly adds up and can put a burden on any business. Poor Lighting Quality Fluorescent tubes fitted in troffers are the most common application for these lights. Since these tubes degrade so rapidly and most troffers fit 2-4 tubes, they can look quite ugly and make a space look dim. To the right, you can see an example of a troffer fitted with fluorescent tubes that are degrading. The tubes vary in light output because they have been replaced at separate times giving the light fixture a dirty and cheap look. LED flat panels are a much smoother source of light while being significantly more efficient as discussed earlier. Quality optics and lenses create a clean and even presentation that makes any space look clean and modern. To the right, you can see an example of a RAB flat panel that we commonly install for our customers. Lack of Customization Over the past few years, we have seen an explosion in lighting technology specifically in controls. Fluorescent lighting has been left behind amidst this growth while LED technology has seen many advances in customization and control capability. Control enabled LEDs offer many features that including daylight harvesting, occupancy sensing, task tuning and more. Learn more about these LED control systems and the features they offer in our blog here. Health Concerns As stated in our introduction, fluorescent tubes utilize hazardous mercury vapor to produce light. Since they contain this hazardous gas, a broken fluorescent tube can create serious health hazards to those who are in the vicinity of one. Glass is used as the tube portion of these lights which are prone to shattering as well. Furthermore, fluorescent tubes produce radioactive light waves such as U.V light which has been shown to be harmful to humans. Employee health and safety is a top priority for any business, we highly recommend replacing your fluorescent tubes to create a better environment for your employees. One broken tube near an employee could result in serious risks for any company. Overall, fluorescent lights are over 80 years old and haven’t seen much advancement in recent years. If you still utilize these lights, we highly recommend you making the switch and taking advantage of the modern, safe and efficient LED lights we have available today. This may sound like a daunting task, especially if you have a large facility which we understand. That is why Integra LED offers turnkey LED lighting upgrades including everything from securing incentives to product installation.